A dog had spent most of her life tethered by chains, unable to experience freedom. So, when she was finally rescued and able to run free, it was a completely new concept to her. Needless to say, then, her first liberated steps were completely magical.

Dogs Deserve Better is a non-profit animal rescue organization based in Smithfield, Virginia. Since 2002 the group has rescued countless canines from lives of suffering. However, its main area of focus is to bring tethered and penned animals out of the cold and into people’s hearts.

In 2015 the founder of Dogs Deserve Better, Amy Hines, was driving in Kentucky when she came across a harrowing sight. In the yard of a property, Hines found a number of desperate doggies all chained up with no shelter in sight.